Past Events

March 2019

Barbara J. Silzle is a mission-driven leader in Philadelphia’s arts and philanthropy communities. Since 2015 she has served as Executive Director of the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, a non-profit corporation whose mission is to provide grant funds to enhance arts and cultural organizations throughout the City of Philadelphia. As chief executive, she ensures programmatic excellence, rigorous program assessment, and consistent quality of financial, fundraising, partnerships, and communications systems.

Elena Timofeeva is a social entrepreneur and an expert on the field of human trafficking. In 2009 Elena founded the Safe House Foundation, which seeks a world without violence and exploitation. SafeHouse Foundation’s specialists provide direct assistance to victims of different types of human trafficking, work with general society, educate specialists with different backgrounds on human trafficking issue and work on referral mechanism to provide victims with comprehensive assistance.

Heather Templeton Dill, granddaughter of the legendary investor Sir John Templeton, is the current president of the John Templeton Foundation, a $3.4 billion philanthropic organization that supports efforts to advance human well-being through rigorous scientific research and related scholarship. Sir John established the Foundation in 1987, and Heather served as a trustee from 1997-2003 and 2009-2015, and has been a member its executive, finance and strategic-planning committees.

April 2019

Carlos Pereira is the CEO and founder of Livox. Carlos is the father of an eleven-year-old girl with cerebral palsy, caused by a medical mistake. Since he found out about his daughter’s impairment, empowering people with disabilities has become a passion for him. Out of this passion, he created several initiatives to improve the lives of disabled people. He founded a software company named Livox that enables non-verbal people to communicate.

India has the largest blind population in the world. Eight million people are totally blind, 55 million are visually impaired and 80% are either preventable or curable. The Sankara Eye Foundation brings quality and timely eye care to the doorsteps of rural India through its award-winning Gift of Vision outreach program.

The Philadelphia Orchestra creates and shares music of the highest caliber for people of all ages and backgrounds. The Orchestra is committed to excellence, innovation and creativity, onstage and off, and serves its many communities at home and abroad by performing music, encouraging music-making and tangibly improving the lives of all with whom it interacts.

May 2019

This podcast features professor Andreas Heinecke, a former journalist, documentarian and groundbreaking entrepreneur whose mission is to mitigate social gaps and foster empathy. His work in the field of social entrepreneurship spans 30 years and has received worldwide recognition.

Dock to Dish is connecting chefs and seafood consumers to small-scale local fishermen and their catches. This model of community-supported fishing (CSF) cuts out the convoluted and sometimes sketchy international seafood processors and industrial fishers in favor of a direct relationship with local fishermen and more sustainable seafood selections. The results are health, equity and sustainability—a model for all organizations with similar goals.